New Nerf Herder Album on Its Nerdy Way

In a bizarre, uncharacteristic moment of coolness I got my mitts on an early copy of the new Nerf Herder album, Nerf Herder IV, which is coming out April 29.

I have a long-term obsession with Nerf Herder, who are probably best known for doing the theme song to Buffy the Vampire Slayer (they played the Bronze in the final season), and second-best known for “Van Halen,” a song calling out Van Halen for being great, then subsequently sucking (“Is this what you wanted, Sammy Hagar?”) Both of which are great songs, though my real deep-diving, repeat-listening Nerf Herder habit began with “Sorry,” which you can hear on their MySpace page:

Sorry I showed up at your party
Sorry I drank up all the Bacardi
Sorry I puked up on your bedspread
Sorry I wanted to be your boyfriend again

It continued on with songs like the incomparable “Mr. Spock”:

You don’t want a boyfriend
What you want is Mr. Spock
To come to your wasteland
And destroy the ro-oh-oh-oh-oh-bot

Basically they play tight, pure, spastic, elastic nerd power-pop larded with geek culture references. To hear Nerf Herder at their best is to wonder why any other kind of music exists.